Two Seconds...Triathlons...Etc.

Last night was a great ride for me. It was hard, it was fast, and I thought I was gonna die a few times...perfect. My bike riding is improving quickly the last few weeks. It's not there yet but I can see the improvement. A small group of us broke away from the main pack after we passed the crossroads, chasing after a couple of very strong triathletes who were pressing us on their full-out tri bikes (that means aerobars, aero wheels...stuff we weren't using). About halfway to Frierson, they left us behind or we decided not to push so hard since there were only five of us with them (three of us over the age of fifty) and we couldn't see anyone behind us. So we kept going until a mile from the village LaS'port studs Russ, Jason, and Bolt came flying by us, chasing the tri-guys. I sat there for a moment and decided to go after them...popped out of the line and shifted a couple of gears and started grinding hard. I got up to 29 mph and saw Russ turn his head to see what was behind his chase group. That usually tells me that their speed is starting to come down a bit....for two seconds I thought I had a chance to catch them...I was within 30 meters and closing. Then I realized they weren't slowing. I saw some shadows behind me, knew that the other guys had latched on to me so I decided to see if we could get throw someone up to the group. I pulled off and signaled to the others to come by. Duece gave a good effort, pulled out, then Seth jumped it up a notch, and as Brian came by me I yelled out "Finish it out! Catch them!" And it worked. Brian caught on to Russ' wheel and managed to stay with them for about a mile. Then he fell off and we caught him. The rest of the ride was just keeping up the efforts. Everyone rode well. I got in a total of 67 miles for the day counting the morning ride.

Last Saturday we were in Alexandria for the Groovy Girls Triathlon. Jonnene would end up finishing 5th overall and first in her age group. Granted, this was a beginner's type of triathlon, all women, and there were a few ringers in the race. But it was good for Jonnene to get her ready for a couple of tri's coming up since she hasn't raced so far this year. Our friend, Elka, should have won the tri but she locked her brakes on the bike as she was coming back in and took a header over the handlebars. She ended up getting stitches in her chin, a couple of chipped teeth, and a black eye. Eee-ouch!

Jonnene (right) gets her helmet on during the first transition while Elka pulls on her bike shoes.

Elka is hot on Jonnene's heels as they leave on the bike leg of the race.

Elka was the first rider back and took a tumble when she locked her brakes going into a turn too fast.

In the ambulance after the crash, Elka was more pissed about not finishing the race than about her injuries!

Jonnene had a good race overall. She was about 19 seconds out of third place overall, mostly due to getting caught behind a slower swimmer in the last 50 yards and a less-than-speedy change in the first transition. But her swim was good, a 20 mph average on the bike, and a 8:30/mile average on the run made her pretty happy with the whole thing. The only drawback was waiting 3 hours for the awards presentation as the rest of the racers finished and then having a kids' triathlon. I hope they change that next year. Having an established time for the awards would allow the racers to go home or to their hotel, shower, change, and come back for the presentation. We didn't know when the awards were going to be handed out, so we had to stick around that whole time. It got a little weary on us!